Speaking of Six Memos: though I’ve never attended the Frankfurt Book Fair myself, one of my sentences, from my translation of that wonderful book, made a rather grand appearance last week. Two questions: if “rum bling” were the name of a cocktail, what would its ingredients be? And is Calvino really making a “City of New Orleans” allusion there at the end?

Thanks to Penguin for naming the translator, to Anne Greeott for the song tip, and to Lawrence Schimel for the photo.